WALKING WITH BEESexplores themes which first came
to light on A Walk in the Park and The Birds & The Bees, both released
in 2005.

DISC ONE

Sometimes [25.07]. This track began life during the
making of A Walk in the Park, but rapidly outgrew the space it was meant to occupy on what was
always planned to be a single disc. After I finished that album, I set about finishing this
track, in the course of which it grew even more and ended up like this.

Long Train Blues [28.01]. It's not often you come
across a piece of music intended to celebrate the Blues and, at the same time, the Golden Age of
Steam. This is just such a work. It's based on the Occasional Train Blues from A Walk in the
Park, and was written just after that album was completed. Of course, trains have a special place
in the mythology of the Blues: countless Blues songs recall hopping freight trains, and going down
to the station for many a sad goodbye; the rattle of the train on the tracks may be imitated by
the drums, and the plaintive whistle by the harmonica or the slide guitar, as indeed they are
here.

DISC TWO

Picnic [8.24] Introduces the first part of the
programme, in which you may imagine yourself joining a picnic party in the Malvern Hills in 1937.

Murmurs from Malvern [8.26] The first of several
episodes on this disc of what has become known as 'Sonic Poetry'.

Woodwind Variation [1.21] A version of the Losing Faith
variations from The Birds & The Bees, scored for woodwinds in a style intended to be vaguely
reminiscent of the 1930's.

Practice Makes Perfect [5.45] Meanwhile, a younger
member of the family, forced to miss the picnic in favour of piano practice, tries to play scales
and ignore the sound of the gardener at work outside. Bored and resentful at not being able to
join the fun, his mind wanders, mixing the beat of the metronome with the ticking of the clock,
and the striking of the hour with the music he must practice.

A Very Ancient Craft [5.08] The youngest child is now
at an age where he must begin to receive instruction in the art of apiculture (that's beekeeping
to you and me!). The route to the picnic site has been carefully chosen, and as they walk, his
tutor - his mother, perhaps, or a patient aunt - asks him to identify what they see. He proudly
demonstrates the knowledge he has acquired.

Fantasy [9.44] Continuing to practice the dull
classical pieces assigned to him (Bee Song and Maypole Song, from The Birds & The Bees), our young
pianist, tired of stumbling over Music for an Imaginary Spy Film (from previous Andy Murkin
albums), gives in to his fantasy of handling keyboards in a rock band of the type which would not
appear until some 30 years later. Asleep, but ahead of his time, he performs brilliantly in his
dreams.

Merry March and Song [11.27] More Sonic Poetry here.
All the sounds are derived from the voice (giving a worthy speech in the local village hall,
perhaps); until part of the way through, when some instruments appear as an accompaniment.

Opposite Pole [4.13] A slightly bizarre
reinterpretation of Maypole Song from The Birds & The Bees.

Just But See What I Have Done! [4.49] A final burst of
rhythmic Sonic Poetry leads into another piece for woodwinds, joined here by a single cello.

View from the Top [12.45] This leads, in turn, to a
final melancholy piece, again scored for cello and woodwinds. A reflection on the state of the
world in 1937, perhaps, in which the optimism of the British Bee Journal was soon to be proved
false.

DISC THREE

The 2 pieces on this disc are a bit different. After the electronic
experiments which lead to tracks such as Slow March on The Birds and the Bees, and others, I tried
producing some 'ambient' sounds - 'mood' music, if you will - designed to be played in the
background, for a soothing, calm, meditative, relaxing kind of effect: you know the sort of thing.
When early listeners complained that it only made them more tense than they were before they put
it on, I knew I was onto something! This disc, then, is meant to be played quietly, as you go
about your daily business, contributing something indefinable to the atmosphere of your day . . .

Oxford Circus [36.04] is based on sounds heard on A
Walk in the Park.

A Picnic in the Malvern Hills [34.48] was developed
from Picnic on Disc 2.

All songs written, arranged, performed and produced by Andy Murkin,
except My Grandfather's Clock [Trad.], which appears in on Disc 2, and the articles from the
British Bee Journal, 1937, which are by E.F.Hemming, J.N.Kidd and T.Watson.